Doctor Who
Premiseedit Doctor Who follows the adventures of the primary character, a rogue Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey who simply goes by the name "Doctor". He fled from Gallifrey in a stolen Type 40 TARDIS time machine - "Time and Relative Dimension in Space" - which allows him to travel across time and space. Due to a malfunction of the TARDIS' "chameleon circuit", which normally allows the TARDIS to take on the appearance of local objects to disguise it from others, the Doctor's TARDIS remains fixed as a blue British Police box. The Doctor rarely travels alone, and often brings one or more companions to share these adventures with, typically humans as he has found a fascination with the planet Earth. He often finds events that pique his curiosity while trying to prevent evil forces from harming innocent people or changing history, using only his ingenuity and minimal resources, such as his versatile sonic screwdriver. As a Time Lord, the Doctor has the ability to regenerate when his body is mortally damaged, taking on a new appearance and personality. The Doctor has gained numerous reoccurring enemies during his travels, including the Daleks, the Cybermen, and another renegade Time Lord, the Master. Historyedit Main article: History of Doctor Who Doctor Who first appeared on BBC1 television at 17:16:20 GMT, eighty seconds after the scheduled programme time, 5:15 pm, on Saturday, 23 November 1963.12 It was to be a regular weekly programme, each episode 25 minutes of transmission length. Discussions and plans for the programme had been in progress for a year. The head of drama, Canadian Sydney Newman, was mainly responsible for developing the programme, with the first format document for the series being written by Newman along with the head of the script department (later head of serials) Donald Wilson and staff writer C. E. Webber. Writer Anthony Coburn, story editor David Whitaker and initial producer Verity Lambert also heavily contributed to the development of the series.31 The programme was originally intended to appeal to a family audience,4 as an educational programme using time travel as a means to explore scientific ideas and famous moments in history. On 31 July 1963 Whitaker commissioned Terry Nation to write a story under the title The Mutants. As originally written, the Daleks and Thals were the victims of an alien neutron bomb attack but Nation later dropped the aliens and made the Daleks the aggressors. When the script was presented to Newman and Wilson it was immediately rejected as the programme was not permitted to contain any "bug-eyed monsters". The first serial had been completed and the BBC believed it was crucial that the next one be a success, however, The Mutants was the only script ready to go so the show had little choice but to use it. According to producer Verity Lambert; "We didn't have a lot of choice — we only had the Dalek serial to go ... We had a bit of a crisis of confidence because Donald Wilson was so adamant that we shouldn't make it. Had we had anything else ready we would have made that." Nation's script became the second Doctor Who serial – The Daleks (aka The Mutants). The serial introduced the eponymous aliens that would become the series' most popular monsters, and was responsible for the BBC's first merchandising boom.5 The BBC drama department's serials division produced the programme for 26 seasons, broadcast on BBC 1. Falling viewing numbers, a decline in the public perception of the show and a less-prominent transmission slot saw production suspended in 1989 byJonathan Powell, controller of BBC 1.6 Although (as series co-star Sophie Aldred reported in the documentary Doctor Who: More Than 30 Years in the TARDIS) it was effectively, if not formally, cancelled with the decision not to commission a planned 27th series of the show for transmission in 1990, the BBC repeatedly affirmed that the series would return.7 While in-house production had ceased, the BBC hoped to find an independent production company to relaunch the show. Philip Segal, a British expatriate who worked for Columbia Pictures' television arm in the United States, had approached the BBC about such a venture as early as July 1989, while the 26th series was still in production.7 Segal's negotiations eventually led to a Doctor Who television film, broadcast on the Fox Network in 1996 as a co-production between Fox, Universal Pictures, the BBC and BBC Worldwide. Although the film was successful in the UK (with 9.1 million viewers), it was less so in the United States and did not lead to a series.7 Licensed media such as novels and audio plays provided new stories, but as a television programme Doctor Who remained dormant until 2003. In September of that year,8 BBC Television announced the in-house production of a new series after several years of attempts by BBC Worldwide to find backing for a feature film version. The executive producers of the new incarnation of the series were writer Russell T Davies and BBC Cymru Wales head of drama Julie Gardner. Doctor Who finally returned with the episode "Rose" on BBC One on 26 March 2005.9 There have since been eight further series in 2006–2008 and 2010–2014, and Christmas Day specials every year since 2005. No full series was filmed in 2009,10 although four additional specials starring Tennant were made. In 2010, Steven Moffat replaced Davies as head writer and executive producer.11 The 2005 version of Doctor Who is a direct plot continuation of the original 1963–1989 series,2 as is the 1996 telefilm. This differs from other series relaunches that have either been reimaginings or reboots (for example, Battlestar Galactica and Bionic Woman) or series taking place in the same universe as the original but in a different period and with different characters (for example, Star Trek: The Next Generation and spin-offs).12 The programme has been sold to many other countries worldwide (see Viewership). Public consciousnessedit It has been suggested that the transmission of the first episode was delayed by ten minutes due to extended news coverage of the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy the previous day; whereas in fact, it went out after a delay of eighty seconds.13Because it was believed that the coverage of the events of the assassination as well as a series of power blackouts across the country may have caused too many viewers to miss this introduction to a new series, the BBC broadcast it again on 30 November 1963, just before the broadcast of episode two.1415 The programme soon became a national institution in the United Kingdom, with a large following among the general viewing audience.1617 Many renowned actors asked for, or were offered and accepted, guest-starring roles in various stories.18192021 With popularity came controversy over the show's suitability for children. Morality campaigner Mary Whitehouse repeatedly complained to the BBC in the 1970s over what she saw as the show's frightening and gory content.22 John Nathan-Turner, who produced the series during the 1980s, was heard to say that he looked forward to Whitehouse's comments, as the show's ratings would increase soon after she had made them.23 The phrase "Hiding behind (or 'watching from behind') the sofa" became coined and entered British pop culture, signifying in humour the stereotypical early-series behaviour of children who wanted to avoid seeing frightening parts of a television programme while remaining in the room to watch the remainder of it.24 The phrase retains this association with Doctor Who, to the point that in 1991 the Museum of the Moving Image in London named their exhibition celebrating the programme "Behind the Sofa". The electronictheme music too was perceived as eerie, novel, and frightening, at the time. A 2012 article placed this childhood juxtapose of fear and thrill "at the center of many people's relationship with the show",25 and a 2011 online vote at Digital Spy deemed the series the "scariest TV show of all time".26 During Jon Pertwee's second series as the Doctor, in the serial Terror of the Autons (1971), images of murderous plastic dolls, daffodils killing unsuspecting victims, and blank-featured policemen marked the apex of the show's ability to frighten children.27 Other notable moments in that decade include a disembodied brain falling to the floor in The Brain of Morbius28 and the Doctor apparently being drowned by Chancellor Goth in The Deadly Assassin (both 1976).29 The fibreglass TARDIS prop used between 1980 and 1989. A BBC audience research survey conducted in 1972 found that, by their own definition of violence ("any acts which may cause physical and/or psychological injury, hurt or death to persons, animals or property, whether intentional or accidental") Doctor Who was the most violent of the drama programmes the corporation produced at the time.30 The same report found that 3% of the surveyed audience regarded the show as "very unsuitable" for family viewing.31 Responding to the findings of the survey in The Times newspaper, journalist Philip Howard maintained that, "to compare the violence of Dr Who, sired by a horse-laugh out of a nightmare, with the more realistic violence of other television series, where actors who look like human beings bleed paint that looks like blood, is like comparing Monopoly with the property market in London: both are fantasies, but one is meant to be taken seriously."30 The image of the TARDIS has become firmly linked to the show in the public's consciousness; BBC scriptwriter Anthony Coburn, who lived in the resort of Herne Bay, Kent, was one of the people who conceived the idea of a police box as a time machine.32 In 1996, the BBC applied for a trade mark to use the TARDIS' blue police box design in merchandising associated with Doctor Who.33 In 1998, the Metropolitan Police Authority filed an objection to the trade mark claim; but in 2002, the Patent Office ruled in favour of the BBC.34 The programme's broad appeal attracts audiences of children and families as well as science fiction fans.35 The 21st century revival of the programme has become the centrepiece of BBC One's Saturday schedule, and has, "defined the channel".36 Since its return, Doctor Who has consistently received high ratings, both in number of viewers and as measured by the Appreciation Index.37 In 2007, Caitlin Moran, television reviewer for The Times, wrote that Doctor Who is, "quintessential to being British".38 Director Steven Spielberg has commented that, "the world would be a poorer place without Doctor Who".39 On 4 August 2013, a live programme titled Doctor Who Live: The Next Doctor was broadcast on BBC One, during which the actor playing the Twelfth Doctor was revealed.40 The show was simultaneously broadcast in the US and Australia.41 Episodesedit Further information: List of Doctor Who serials Doctor Who originally ran for 26 seasons on BBC One, from 23 November 1963 until 6 December 1989. During the original run, each weekly episode formed part of a story (or "serial") — usually of four to six parts in earlier years and three to four in later years. Notable exceptions were: The Daleks' Master Plan, which aired in 12 episodes (plus an earlier one-episode teaser,42 "Mission to the Unknown", featuring none of the regular cast43); almost an entire season of seven-episode serials (season 7); the 10-episode serial The War Games;44 and The Trial of a Time Lord, which ran for 14 episodes (albeit divided into three production codes and four narrative segments) during season 23.45 Occasionally serials were loosely connected by a storyline, such as season 8 being devoted to the Doctor battling a rogue Time Lord called The Master,4647 season 16's quest for The Key to Time,48 season 18's journey through E-Space and the theme of entropy,49 and season 20's Black Guardian Trilogy.50 The programme was intended to be educational and for family viewing on the early Saturday evening schedule.51 Initially, it alternated stories set in the past, which were intended to teach younger audience members about history, with stories set either in the future or in outer space to teach them about science.51 This was also reflected in the Doctor's original companions, one of whom was a science teacher and another a history teacher.51 However, science fiction stories came to dominate the programme and the "historicals", which were not popular with the production team,51 were dropped after The Highlanders (1967). While the show continued to use historical settings, they were generally used as a backdrop for science fiction tales, with one exception: Black Orchid set in 1920s England.52 The early stories were serial-like in nature, with the narrative of one story flowing into the next, and each episode having its own title, although produced as distinct stories with their own production codes.53 Following The Gunfighters (1966), however, each serial was given its own title, with the individual parts simply being assigned episode numbers.53 Of the programme's many writers, Robert Holmes was the most prolific,54 while Douglas Adams became the most well-known outside Doctor Who itself, due to the popularity of his Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.5556 The serial format changed for the 2005 revival, with each series usually consisting of 13 45-minute, self-contained episodes (60 minutes with adverts, on overseas commercial channels), and an extended episode broadcast on Christmas Day. Each series includes several standalone and multi-part stories, linked with a loose story arc that resolves in the series finale. As in the early "classic" era, each episode, whether standalone or part of a larger story, has its own title. Occasionally, regular-series episodes will exceed the 45-minute run time; notably, the episodes "Journey's End" from 2008 and "The Eleventh Hour" from 2010 exceeded an hour in length. 812 Doctor Who instalments have been televised since 1963, ranging between 25-minute episodes (the most common format), 45-minute episodes (for Resurrection of the Daleks in the 1984 series, a single season in 1985, and the revival), two feature-length productions (1983's The Five Doctors and the 1996 television film), eight Christmas specials (most of 60 minutes' duration, one of 72 minutes), and four additional specials ranging from 60 to 75 minutes in 2009, 2010 and 2013. Four mini-episodes, running about eight minutes each, were also produced for the 1993, 2005 and 2007 Children in Need charity appeals, while another mini-episode was produced in 2008 for a Doctor Who-themed edition of The Proms. The 1993 2-part story, entitled Dimensions in Time, was made in collaboration with the cast of the BBC soap-opera EastEnders and was filmed partly on the EastEnders set. A two-part mini-episode was also produced for the 2011 edition of Comic Relief. Starting with the 2009 special "Planet of the Dead", the series was filmed in 1080i for HDTV,57 and broadcast simultaneously on BBC One and BBC HD. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the show, a special 3D episode, "The Day of the Doctor", was broadcast in 2013.58 In March 2013, it was announced that Tennant and Piper would be returning,59 and that the episode would have a limited cinematic release worldwide.60 Missing episodesedit Main article: Doctor Who missing episodes Between about 1964 and 1973, large amounts of older material stored in the BBC's various video tape and film libraries were either destroyed,3 wiped, or suffered from poor storage which led to severe deterioration from broadcast quality. This included many old episodes of Doctor Who, mostly stories featuring the first two Doctors: William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton. In all, 97 of 253 episodes produced during the first six years of the programme are not held in the BBC's archives (most notably seasons 3, 4, & 5, from which 79 episodes are missing). In 1972, almost all episodes then made were known to exist at the BBC,61 while by 1978 the practice of wiping tapes and destroying "spare" film copies had been brought to a stop.62 No 1960s episodes exist on their original videotapes (all surviving prints being film transfers), though some were transferred to film for editing before transmission, and exist in their broadcast form.63 Some episodes have been returned to the BBC from the archives of other countries who bought prints for broadcast, or by private individuals who acquired them by various means. Early colour videotape recordings made off-air by fans have also been retrieved, as well as excerpts filmed from the television screen onto 8 mm cine film and clips that were shown on other programmes. Audio versions of all of the lost episodes exist from home viewers who made tape recordings of the show. Short clips from every story with the exception of Marco Polo, "Mission to the Unknown" and The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve also exist. In addition to these, there are off-screen photographs made by photographer John Cura, who was hired by various production personnel to document many of their programmes during the 1950s and 1960s, including Doctor Who. These have been used in fan reconstructions of the serials. These amateur reconstructions have been tolerated by the BBC, provided they are not sold for profit and are distributed as low-quality VHS copies.64 One of the most sought-after lost episodes is part four of the last William Hartnell serial, The Tenth Planet (1966), which ends with the First Doctor transforming into the Second. The only portion of this in existence, barring a few poor-quality silent 8 mm clips, is the few seconds of the regeneration scene, as it was shown on the children's magazine show Blue Peter.65 With the approval of the BBC, efforts are now under way to restore as many of the episodes as possible from the extant material. "Official" reconstructions have also been released by the BBC on VHS, on MP3 CD-ROM, and as special features on DVD. The BBC, in conjunction with animation studio Cosgrove Hall, reconstructed the missing episodes 1 and 4 of The Invasion (1968), using remastered audio tracks and the comprehensive stage notes for the original filming, for the serial's DVD release in November 2006. The missing episodes of The Reign of Terror were animated by animation company Theta-Sigma, in collaboration with Big Finish, and became available for purchase in May 2013 through Amazon.com.66 Subsequent animations made in 2013 include The Tenth Planet, The Ice Warriors and The Moonbase. In April 2006, Blue Peter launched a challenge to find missing Doctor Who episodes with the promise of a full-scale Dalek model as a reward.67 In December 2011, it was announced that part 3 of Galaxy 4 and part 2 of The Underwater Menace had been returned to the BBC by a fan who had purchased them in the mid-1980s without realising that the BBC did not hold copies of them.68 On 10 October 2013, the BBC announced that films of eleven episodes, including nine missing episodes, had been found in a Nigerian television relay station in Jos.69 Six of the eleven films discovered were the six-part serial The Enemy of the World, from which all but the third episode had been missing.70 The remaining films were from another six-part serial, The Web of Fear, and included the previously missing episodes 2, 4, 5, and 6. Episode 3 of The Web of Fear is still missing.71 Charactersedit See also: List of Doctor Who cast members The Doctoredit Main article: Doctor (Doctor Who) The Doctor portrayed by series leads in chronological order. Left to right from top row;William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, Paul McGann,Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant, Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi. The character of the Doctor was initially shrouded in mystery. All that was known about him in the programme's early days was that he was an eccentric alien traveller of great intelligence who battled injustice while exploring time and space in an unreliable time machine, the "TARDIS" (an acronym for time and relative dimension(s) in space), which notably appears much larger on the inside than on the outside (a quality referred to as "dimensional transcendentality").472 The initially irascible and slightly sinister Doctor quickly mellowed into a more compassionate figure. It was eventually revealed that he had been on the run from his own people, the Time Lords of the planet Gallifrey. Changes of appearanceedit Producers introduced the concept of regeneration to permit the recasting of the main character. This was first prompted by original star William Hartnell's poor health. The actual term "regeneration" was not initially conceived of until the Doctor's third on-screen regeneration however; Hartnell's Doctor had merely described undergoing a "renewal," and the Second Doctor underwent a "change of appearance".[citation needed] The device has allowed for the recasting of the actor various times in the show's history, as well as the depiction of alternative Doctors either from the Doctor's relative past or future.[citation needed] The serials The Deadly Assassin and Mawdryn Undead and the 1996 TV film would later establish that a Time Lord can only regenerate 12 times, for a total of 13 incarnations. This line became stuck in the public consciousness despite not often being repeated, and was recognised by producers of the show as a plot obstacle for when the show finally had to regenerate the Doctor a thirteenth time.7374 The episode "The Time of the Doctor" depicted the Doctor acquiring a new cycle of regenerations, starting from the Twelfth Doctor, due to the Eleventh Doctor being the product of the Doctor's twelfth regeneration from his original set.[citation needed] In addition to those actors who have headlined the series, others have portrayed versions of the Doctor in guest roles. Notably, in 2013, John Hurt guest-starred as an hitherto unknown incarnation of the Doctor known as the War Doctor in the run-up to the show's 50th anniversary special "The Day of the Doctor".78 He is shown in mini-episode "The Night of the Doctor" to have been retroactively inserted into the show's fictional chronology between McGann and Eccleston's Doctors, although his introduction was written so as not to disturb the established numerical naming of the Doctors.79 Another example is from the 1986 serial The Trial of a Time Lord, where Michael Jayston portrayed the Valeyard, who is described as an amalgamation of the darker sides of the Doctor's nature, somewhere between his twelfth and final incarnation. On rare occasions, other actors have stood in for the lead. In The Five Doctors, Richard Hurndall played the First Doctor due to William Hartnell's death in 1975. In Time and the Rani, Sylvester McCoy briefly played the Sixth Doctor during the regeneration sequence, carrying on as the Seventh. For more information, see the list of actors who have played the Doctor. In other media, the Doctor has been played by various other actors, including Peter Cushing in two films. The casting of a new Doctor has often inspired debate and speculation: in particular, the desirability or possibility of a new Doctor being played by a woman.8081 In October 2010, the Sunday Telegraph revealed that the series' co-creator, Sydney Newman, had urged the BBC to recast the role of the Doctor as a female "Time Lady" during the ratings crisis of the late 1980s.82 Meetings of different incarnationsedit There have been instances of actors returning at later dates to reprise the role of their specific Doctor. In 1973's The Three Doctors, William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton returned alongside Jon Pertwee. For 1983's The Five Doctors, Troughton and Pertwee returned to star with Peter Davison, and Tom Baker appeared in previously unseen footage from the uncompleted Shada episode. For this episode, Richard Hurndall replaced William Hartnell. Patrick Troughton again returned in 1985's The Two Doctors with Colin Baker. In 2007, Peter Davison returned in the Children in Need short "Time Crash" alongside David Tennant, and most recently in 2013's 50th anniversary special episode, "The Day of the Doctor", David Tennant's Tenth Doctor appeared alongside Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor and John Hurt as the War Doctor, as well as brief footage from all of the previous actors.83 In addition, the Doctor has occasionally encountered himself in the form of his own incarnation, from the near future or past. The First Doctor encounters himself in the story The Space Museum (albeit frozen and as an exhibit), the Third Doctor encounters and interacts with himself in the story Day of the Daleks, the Fourth Doctor encounters and interacts with the future incarnation of himself (the 'Watcher') in the story Logopolis, the Ninth Doctor observes a former version of his current incarnation in "Father's Day", and the Eleventh Doctor briefly comes face to face with himself in "The Big Bang". In "The Almost People" the Doctor comes face-to-face with himself although it is found out that this incarnation is in fact just a flesh replica. In "The Name of the Doctor", the Eleventh Doctor meets an unknown incarnation of himself, whom he refers to as "his secret" and who is subsequently revealed to be the War Doctor.78 Additionally, multiple Doctors have returned in new adventures together in audio dramas based on the series. Peter Davison, Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy appeared together in the 1999 audio adventure The Sirens of Time. To celebrate the 40th anniversary in 2003, an audio drama titled Zagreus featuring Paul McGann, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy and Peter Davison was released with additional archive recordings of Jon Pertwee.84 Again in 2003, Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy appeared together in the audio adventure Project: Lazarus.85 In 2010, Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy and Paul McGann came together again to star in the audio drama The Four Doctors. Revelations about the Doctoredit See also: Doctor Who Continuity inconsistencies Throughout the programme's long history, there have been revelations about the Doctor that have raised additional questions. In The Brain of Morbius (1976), it was hinted that the First Doctor may not have been the first incarnation (although the other faces depicted may have been incarnations of the Time Lord Morbius). In subsequent stories the First Doctor was depicted as the earliest incarnation of the Doctor. In Mawdryn Undead (1983), the Fifth Doctor explicitly confirmed that he was then currently in his fifth incarnation. Later that same year, during 1983's 20th Anniversary special The Five Doctors, the First Doctor enquires as to the Fifth Doctor's regeneration; when the Fifth Doctor confirms "Fourth", the First Doctor excitedly replies "Goodness me. So there are five of me now." In 2010, the Eleventh Doctor similarly calls himself "the Eleventh" in "The Lodger". In the 2013 episode "The Time of the Doctor," the Eleventh Doctor clarified he was the product of the twelfth regeneration, due to a previous incarnation which he chose not to count and one other aborted regeneration. The name Eleventh is still used for this incarnation; the same episode depicts the prophesied "Fall of the Eleventh" which had been trailed throughout the series. During the Seventh Doctor's era, it was hinted that the Doctor was more than just an ordinary Time Lord. In the 1996 television film, the Eighth Doctor describes himself as being, "half human".86 The BBC's FAQ for the programme notes that "purists tend to disregard this",87 instead focusing on his Gallifreyan heritage. The programme's first serial, An Unearthly Child, shows that the Doctor has a granddaughter, Susan Foreman. In the 1967 serial, Tomb of the Cybermen, when Victoria Waterfield doubts the Doctor can remember his family because of, "being so ancient", the Doctor says that he can when he really wants to—"The rest of the time they sleep in my mind". The 2005 series reveals that the Ninth Doctor thought he was the last surviving Time Lord, and that his home planet had been destroyed; in "The Empty Child" (2005), Dr. Constantine states that, "Before the war even began, I was a father and a grandfather. Now I am neither." The Doctor remarks in response, "Yeah, I know the feeling." In "Smith and Jones" (2007), when asked if he had a brother, he replied, "No, not any more." In both "Fear Her" (2006) and "The Doctor's Daughter" (2008), he states that he had, in the past, been a father. In "The Wedding of River Song" (2011), it is implied that the Doctor's true name is a secret that must never be revealed; this is explored further in "The Name of the Doctor" (2013), when River Song speaking his name allows the Great Intelligence to enter his tomb, and in "The Time of the Doctor" (2013) where speaking his true name becomes the signal by which the Time Lords would know they can safely return to the universe, an event opposed by many species. Companionsedit Main article: Companion (Doctor Who) The perennial companion figure has been a constant feature in Doctor Who since the programme's inception in 1963. Generally human, one of the roles of the companion is to remind the Doctor of his "moral duty".88 The Doctor's first companions seen on screen were his granddaughter Susan Foreman (Carole Ann Ford) and her teachers Barbara Wright (Jacqueline Hill) and Ian Chesterton (William Russell). These characters were intended to act as audience surrogates, through which the audience would discover information about the Doctor who was to act as a mysterious father figure.88 The only story from the original series in which the Doctor travels alone is The Deadly Assassin. Notable companions from the earlier series included Romana (Mary Tamm and Lalla Ward), a Time Lady; Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen); and Jo Grant (Katy Manning). Dramatically, these characters provide a figure with whom the audience can identify, and serve to further the story by requesting exposition from the Doctor and manufacturing peril for the Doctor to resolve. The Doctor regularly gains new companions and loses old ones; sometimes they return home or find new causes — or loves — on worlds they have visited. Some have died during the course of the series. Companions are usually human, or humanoid aliens. Since the 2005 revival, The Doctor generally travels with a primary female companion, who occupies a larger narrative role. Steven Moffat described the companion as the main character of the show, as the story begins anew with each companion and she undergoes more change than the Doctor.8990 The primary companions of the Ninth and Tenth Doctors were Rose Tyler (Billie Piper), Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman), and Donna Noble (Catherine Tate) with Mickey Smith (Noel Clarke), Jackie Tyler (Camille Coduri) and Jack Harkness (John Barrowman) recurring as secondary companion figures.91 The Eleventh Doctor became the first to travel with a married couple (Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) and Rory Williams (Arthur Darvill)) whilst out-of-sync meetings with River Song (Alex Kingston) and Clara Oswald (Jenna Coleman) provided ongoing story arcs. Some companions have gone on to re-appear either in the main series, or in spin-offs. Sarah Jane Smith became the central character in The Sarah Jane Adventures (2007-2011) following a return to Doctor Who in 2006. Guest stars in the series included former companions Jo Grant, K-9, and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart (Nicholas Courtney). The character of Jack Harkness also served to launch a spin-off, Torchwood, (2006-2011) in which Martha Jones also appeared. Adversariesedit See also: List of Doctor Who universe creatures and aliens and List of Doctor Who villains When Sydney Newman commissioned the series, he specifically did not want to perpetuate the cliché of the "bug-eyed monster" of science fiction.92 However, monsters were popular with audiences and so became a staple of Doctor Who almost from the beginning. With the show's 2005 revival, executive producer Russell T Davies stated93 his intention to reintroduce classic icons of Doctor Who one step at a time: the Autons with the Nestene Consciousness and Daleks in series 1, Cybermen in series 2, the Macra and the Master in series 3, the Sontarans and Davros in series 4, and the Time Lords (Rassilon) in the 2009–10 Specials. Davies' successor, Steven Moffat, has continued the trend by reviving the Silurians in series 5, Cybermats in series 6, the Great Intelligence and theIce Warriors in Series 7, and Zygons in the 50th Anniversary Special.94 Since its 2005 return, the series has also introduced new recurring aliens: Slitheen (Raxacoricofallapatorian), Ood, Judoon, Weeping Angels and the Silence. Besides infrequent appearances by the Ice Warriors, Ogrons, the Rani, and Black Guardian, three adversaries have become particularly iconic: the Daleks, the Cybermen, and the Master. Daleksedit Main article: Dalek The Dalek race, which first appeared in the show's second serial in 1963,95 are Doctor Who 's oldest villains. The Daleks were Kaleds from the planet Skaro, mutated by the scientist Davros and housed in tank-like mechanical armour shells for mobility. The actual creatures resemble octopuses with large, pronounced brains. Their armour shells contain a single eye-stalk to allow them vision, a sink-plunger-like device that serves the purpose of a hand, and a directed-energy weapon. Their main weakness is their eyestalk; most attacks on them, including those from guns and baseball bats, will blind them, making them go mad. Their chief role in the plot of the series, as they frequently remark in their instantly recognisable metallic voices, is to "exterminate" all non-Dalek beings, even attacking the Time Lords in the Time War, which was not shown until the 50th Anniversary celebrating the show, where some snippets of the Time War are shown. The Daleks' most recent appearance was in the 2014 episode "Into the Dalek". They continue to be a recurring 'monster' within the Doctor Who franchise. Davros himself has also been a recurring figure since his debut in Genesis of the Daleks, although played by several different actors. The Daleks were created by writer Terry Nation (who intended them to be an allegory of the Nazis)96 and BBC designer Raymond Cusick.97 The Daleks' début in the programme's second serial, The Daleks (1963–64), made both the Daleks and Doctor Who very popular. A Dalek appeared on a postage stamp celebrating British popular culture in 1999, photographed by Lord Snowdon. In the new series, Daleks come in a range of colours; the colour of a Dalek denotes its role within the species.[citation needed] In the 2012 episode "Asylum of the Daleks", every generation of the Dalek species made an appearance.98 Cybermenedit Main article: Cyberman Cybermen were originally a wholly organic species of humanoids originating on Earth's twin planet Mondas that began to implant more and more artificial parts into their bodies. This led to the race becoming coldly logical and calculating cyborgs, with emotions usually only shown when naked aggression was called for. With the demise of Mondas, they acquired Telos as their new home planet. They continue to be a recurring 'monster' within the Doctor Who franchise. The 2006 series introduced a totally new variation of Cybermen. These Cybus Cybermen were created in a parallel universe by the mad inventor John Lumic; he was attempting to preserve the life of a human by transplanting their brains into powerful metal bodies, sending them orders using a mobile phone network and inhibiting their emotions with an electronic chip. The Masteredit Main article: Master (Doctor Who) The Master is the Doctor's archenemy, a renegade Time Lord who desires to rule the universe. Conceived as "Professor Moriarty to the Doctor's Sherlock Holmes",99 the character first appeared in 1971. As with the Doctor, the role has been portrayed by several actors, since the Master is a Time Lord as well and able to regenerate; the first of these actors was Roger Delgado, who continued in the role until his death in 1973. The Master was briefly played by Peter Pratt and Geoffrey Beevers until Anthony Ainley took over and continued to play the character until Doctor Who's hiatus in 1989. The Master returned in the 1996 television movie of Doctor Who, and was played by American actor Eric Roberts. Following the series revival in 2005, Derek Jacobi provided the character's re-introduction in the 2007 episode "Utopia". During that story the role was then assumed by John Simm who returned to the role multiple times through the Tenth Doctor's tenure.100 As of the 2014 episode "Dark Water," it was revealed that the Master had become a female incarnation or "Time Lady," going by the name of "Missy" (short for Mistress, the feminine equivalent of "Master"). This incarnation is played by Michelle Gomez. Musicedit See also: List of Doctor Who composers Theme musicedit Main article: Doctor Who theme music The Doctor Who theme music was one of the first electronic music signature tunes for television, and after five decades remains one of the most easily recognised. It has been often called both memorable and frightening, priming the viewer for what was to follow. During the 1970s, the Radio Times, the BBC's own listings magazine, announced that a child's mother said the theme music terrified her son. The Radio Times''was apologetic, but the theme music remained.[''citation needed] The original theme was composed by Ron Grainer and realised by Delia Derbyshire of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, with assistance from Dick Mills. The various parts were built up using musique concrètetechniques, by creating tape loops of an individually struck piano string and individual test oscillators and filters. The Derbyshire arrangement served, with minor edits, as the theme tune up to the end of season 17(1979–80). It is regarded as a significant and innovative piece of electronic music, recorded well before the availability of commercial synthesisers or multitrack mixers. Each note was individually created by cutting, splicing, speeding up and slowing down segments of analogue tape containing recordings of a single plucked string, white noise, and the simple harmonic waveforms of test-tone oscillators, intended for calibrating equipment and rooms, not creating music. New techniques were invented to allow mixing of the music, as this was before the era of multitrack tape machines. On hearing the finished result, Grainer asked, "did I write that?"[citation needed] A different arrangement was recorded by Peter Howell for season 18 (1980), which was in turn replaced by Dominic Glynn's arrangement for the season-long serial The Trial of a Time Lord in season 23 (1986). Keff McCulloch provided the new arrangement for theSeventh Doctor's era which lasted from season 24 (1987) until the series' suspension in 1989. American composer John Debney created a new arrangement of Ron Grainer's original theme for Doctor Who in 1996. For the return of the series in 2005, Murray Goldprovided a new arrangement which featured samples from the 1963 original with further elements added; in the 2005 Christmas episode "The Christmas Invasion", Gold introduced a modified closing credits arrangement that was used up until the conclusion of the 2007 series.[citation needed] A new arrangement of the theme, once again by Gold, was introduced in the 2007 Christmas special episode, "Voyage of the Damned"; Gold returned as composer for the 2010 season.101 He was responsible for a new version of the theme which was reported to have had a hostile reception from some viewers.102 In 2011, the theme tune charted at number 228 of radio station Classic FM's Hall of Fame, a survey of classical music tastes. A revised version of Gold's 2010 arrangement had its debut over the opening titles of the 2012 Christmas special "The Snowmen", and a further revision of the arrangement was made for the 50th Anniversary special "The Day of the Doctor" in November 2013.[citation needed] Versions of the "Doctor Who Theme" have also been released as pop music over the years. In the early 1970s, Jon Pertwee, who had played the Third Doctor, recorded a version of the Doctor Who theme with spoken lyrics, titled, "Who Is the Doctor".6 In 1978 a disco version of the theme was released in the UK, Denmark and Australia by the group Mankind, which reached number 24 in the UK charts. In 1988 the band The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu (later known as The KLF) released the single "Doctorin' the Tardis" under the name The Timelords, which reached No. 1 in the UK and No. 2 in Australia; this version incorporated several other songs, including "Rock and Roll Part 2" by Gary Glitter (who recorded vocals for some of the CD-single remix versions of "Doctorin' the Tardis").103 Others who have covered or reinterpreted the theme include Orbital,103 Pink Floyd,103 the Australian string ensemble Fourplay, New Zealand punk band Blam Blam Blam, The Pogues, Thin Lizzy, Dub Syndicate, and the comedians Bill Bailey andMitch Benn, and it and obsessive fans were satirised on The Chaser's War on Everything. The theme tune has also appeared on many compilation CDs and has made its way into mobile phone ring tones. Fans have also produced and distributed their own remixes of the theme. In January 2011 the Mankind version was released as a digital download on the album Gallifrey And Beyond. Incidental musicedit Main article: List of music featured on Doctor Who See also: List of Doctor Who music releases Most of the innovative incidental music for Doctor Who has been specially commissioned from freelance composers, although in the early years some episodes also used stock music, as well as occasional excerpts from original recordings or cover versions of songs by popular music acts such as The Beatles and The Beach Boys. Since its 2005 return, the series has featured occasional use of excerpts of pop music from the 1970s to the 2000s. The incidental music for the first Doctor Who adventure, An Unearthly Child, was written by Norman Kay. Many of the stories of the William Hartnell period were scored by electronic music pioneer Tristram Cary, whose Doctor Who credits include The Daleks, Marco Polo, The Daleks' Master Plan, The Gunfighters and The Mutants. Other composers in this early period included Richard Rodney Bennett, Carey Blyton and Geoffrey Burgon. The most frequent musical contributor during the first 15 years was Dudley Simpson, who is also well known for his theme and incidental music for Blake's 7, and for his haunting theme music and score for the original 1970s version of The Tomorrow People. Simpson's first Doctor Who score was Planet of Giants (1964) and he went on to write music for many adventures of the 1960s and 1970s, including most of the stories of the Jon Pertwee/Tom Baker periods, ending with The Horns of Nimon (1979). He also made acameo appearance in The Talons of Weng-Chiang (as a Music hall conductor). In 1980 starting with the serial The Leisure Hive the task of creating incidental music was assigned to the Radiophonic Workshop. Paddy Kingsland and Peter Howell contributed many scores in this period and other contributors included Roger Limb, Malcolm Clarkeand Jonathan Gibbs. The Radiophonic Workshop was dropped after 1986's The Trial of a Time Lord series, and Keff McCulloch took over as the series' main composer until the end of its run, with Dominic Glynn and Mark Ayres also contributing scores. All the incidental music for the 2005 revived series has been composed by Murray Gold and Ben Foster and has been performed by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales from the 2005 Christmas episode "The Christmas Invasion" onwards. A concert featuring the orchestra performing music from the first two series took place on 19 November 2006 to raise money for Children in Need. David Tennant hosted the event, introducing the different sections of the concert. Murray Gold and Russell T Davies answered questions during the interval and Daleks and Cybermen appeared whilst music from their stories was played. The concert aired on BBCi on Christmas Day 2006. A Doctor Who Prom was celebrated on 27 July 2008 in the Royal Albert Hall as part of the annual BBC Proms. The BBC Philharmonic and the London Philharmonic Choir performed Murray Gold's compositions for the series, conducted by Ben Foster, as well as a selection of classics based on the theme of space and time. The event was presented by Freema Agyeman and guest-presented by various other stars of the show with numerous monsters participating in the proceedings. It also featured the specially filmed mini-episode "Music of the Spheres", written by Russell T Davies and starring David Tennant.104 Six soundtrack releases have been released since 2005. The first featured tracks from the first two series,105 the second and third featured music from the third and fourth series respectively. The fourth was released on 4 October 2010 as a two disc special edition and contained music from the 2008–2010 specials (The Next Doctor to End of Time Part 2).106107 The soundtrack for Series 5 was released on 8 November 2010.108 In February 2011, a soundtrack was released for the 2010 Christmas special: "A Christmas Carol",109 and in December 2011 the soundtrack for Series 6 was released, both by Silva Screen Records.110 Logo historyedit Below is a collection of current and past Doctor Who logos from the classic and current series. The different doctors have been placed below the logo that has appeared most in their reign (e.g. The diamond logo from 1973-1980 was used for the Third Doctor in his final season (5 serials). However, he is better associated with the 1967-1973 logo used for three seasons (7-11)). The original logo used for the First Doctor (and briefly for the Second Doctor) was reused in a slightly modified format for the 50th anniversary special The Day of the Doctor during the Eleventh Doctor's run. The logo used in the television movie starring the Eighth Doctor was an edited form of the logo used in for the Third Doctor. The logo from 1973-80, was used for the Third Doctor's final series and for the majority of the Fourth Doctor's tenure. The following logo, while most associated with the Fifth Doctor, was also used for the Fourth Doctor's final season. The logo used for the Ninth Doctor was slightly edited for the Tenth Doctor, however it retained the same general appearance. The logo used for the Eleventh Doctor had the 'DW' TARDIS portion removed in 2012 but the same font remained (hence the date for until 2014), and the font was later altered for the Twelfth Doctor. As of 2014, the logo used for the Third and Eighth Doctors is the primary logo used on all media and merchandise relating to Doctors from the classic series (First to Eighth Doctors) and the 'DW TARDIS portion of the Eleventh Doctor's logo is primarily used in conjunction with the current logo for all merchandise relating to the current series Doctors (Ninth to present).